In the past, people have recognized the desirability of having garage doors partially opened in order to provide introduction of fresh outside air within the garage area. However, unless a person is in the garage area, leaving a garage door partially open provides a risk of permitting a thief to gain access to the garage area where bicycles, tools, etc. may be located. Even if a person was in the garage area, leaving a garage door partially open is an invitation to permit animals and insects to penetrate into the garage area through the partial opening created by the garage door being partially open.
As a result, people have sought to block the opening created by the garage door being partially open with a screen which prevented an entry by insects and animals. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,169 disclosed a garage door screen which contained a passageway provided by a pair of zippers. However, the garage door screen was not attached to a garage door, but served only to cover the garage door opening. U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,449 is similar to U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,169, but discloses a different form of attachment. U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,566 discloses top and bottom screens for a garage door, however, the bottom screen can only be attached to the garage door either when the bottom screen is in its upper (elevated position) with the garage door open or when the garage door is lowered to its lowest (at ground) position with the screen also at its lowest (ground) position. However, there is no provision for locking the screen to the garage door when the screen is in its lowest position and the garage door is open. Thus, a potential thief or burglar can lift the bottom screen, when the garage door has been lifted, to an elevated level above ground or where the bottom portion of the bottom screen is at the same level as the bottom portion of the garage door. U.S. Design Pat. No. 357,071 discloses a garage door drop screen similar to the screens disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,427,169 and 5,271,449.
Currently, electrically controlled garage doors that are operated by remote controlled devices for opening and closing these garage doors are required to provide a sensing system located adjacent the bottom portion of the garage door opening which is used to detect if a person, animal or object is located adjacent the bottom portion of the garage door opening and function to prevent the electrically controlled garage door to strike such a person, animal or object when moving towards a closed position. Thus, using a bottom screen on an inside portion of a garage door created a problem because the garage door and attached bottom screen were not sensed by the sensing system and, therefore, they were both lowered together and the electrically controlled garage door continued to its closed position. Consequently, the bottom screen could not, in the past, be fixedly attached to the garage door to extend below the bottom portion thereof because the garage door moving to its bottom closed position would crush or severely damage the attached (lower positioned) bottom screen.
Accordingly, a need existed to provide a combined garage door screen and garage door and method which permitted a garage door screen or bottom screen to be attached to the inside portion of the garage door and to be movable relative to the garage door to be selectively locked both into an upper position where the bottom portion of the bottom screen does not extend below the bottom portion of the garage door and into a lower position where the bottom portion of the bottom screen closes the opening located between the bottom portion of the garage door spaced from the ground.